


two dead canaries

by pawn_vs_player



Series: leave the light behind [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (pietro's death), Denial, Drabble, Evil Wanda Maximoff, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Mind Control, Mind Control Theory, Mind Manipulation, Villain!Wanda Maximoff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-09-17 22:08:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16982679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pawn_vs_player/pseuds/pawn_vs_player
Summary: Clint knows what mind control feels like. He would know if someone else was trying to get into his head.My in-denial theory for Clint's complete 180 from Avengers & AoU to Civil War.





	two dead canaries

**Author's Note:**

> listen. i want to like clint barton. i really do. if that means i have to offer up theories about the complete 180 his character took between the first 2 movies & ca:cw, then i'm going to offer up the theories.

He knows what mind control feels like. It's ice connecting his synapses, blue clouding his vision, an oil-slick voice controlling his every move and thought. It's a creeping numbness in his extremities, a frigid hand scooping his head out and inspecting its contents. It's his ribcage creaking with frost and sharp, frozen crystals clogging his throat.

He knows what mind control feels like.

What 'Tasha describes, after the fight with the twins and Ultron, is something else. Hallucinations of someone's worst fear. Clint thinks the girl is some kind of empath, maybe, or a psychic: a person who, while able to look into someone else's mind and manipulate their emotions, is incapable of outright mind control. Wanda Maximoff is scary, Clint decides, but not terrifying. Like any other target SHIELD's had him face over the years: dangerous and powerful, but far from invincible.

-

Pietro falls, riddled with bullets. After, Clint holds Wanda as she shakes apart, screaming into her hands.

"She fought for us," Cap says somewhere behind him. "She's an Avenger now."

Something in Clint's chest tightens in revulsion. She mind-whammied the others, he thinks; even with what he himself told her, he's not sure he can trust her at his back. She's not as bad as Loki, sure, but that doesn't mean she's not bad.

_She fought for us._

_She's not like Loki._

Clint rubs her back in slow, gentle circles, like he did for his daughter when she was sick with the flu and couldn't sleep. The knot in his chest loosens. Her screaming peters off into slow, quiet sobs.

(Unseen, Wanda smiles.)


End file.
